I'm not going to lie, I'm not familiar with Adam as a character. And that's a problem, because I can't say how much of Adam Strange as shown in this comic is the original Adam Strange, and how much of him was deconstructed, reinvented by King, already infamous for decontructing, reinventing and plain butchering well known, already established characters. For a while I was thinking should I even write this review considering my lack of knowledge about the protagonist and his history. And then it striked me - I am the average person, a regular, ordinary reader with no expertise in the field, which makes it impossible to tell how much did King make up this time. Remember when Heroes in Crisis and his Batman run utterly failed? The avalanche of criticism and hatred wasn't coming from normies, it has been coming from knowledgeable fans who know for granted what a character would, and what would not do in given circumstances. So, this time I'm here representing the completely neutral audience who has absolutely no clue who, what, where, when and how. Completely uninformed. Kinda like Joe Biden's voters (shots fired! Too soon?).
All that being said, the comic didn't really get to me. I remain open minded, and I get the idea of what's happening to the titular character, what he deals with, but... I'm not really sold. The story felt like it's constructed out of snippets intended to tell a larger story, but there's so many holes and missing links between them, it really made me put the book down, do something else, return after 10 minutes, read few pages more, rinse and repeat. It didn't feel captivating, and the only thing about it I really enjoyed was the art. The story and dialogues, especially one panel, where Adam says out loud everything the reader needs to know about him and character close to him, are not great, to say at least. They're not bad, either, however. King's dialogues in Batman and Heroes in Crisis were beyond awful, here they are passable, I guess, at least coming from the perspective of a total Adam Strange ignorant. Long time fans may have different opinion, and I'd like to hear what they have to say about it all.
What's my final verdict? It's a rather underwhelming start. On the other hand, it's limited series, not a long running soap opera, so maybe the story will turn out to be well thought through and all the loose dots will connect in the end... then again, it's King, so I wouldn't hold my breath for that. Not after the disastrous ending of his Batman run.
I don't remember who said it... may have been Grant Morrison, that radical tonal changes and reiventions may work well with more obscure characters who don't sell well. Judging by King's success with Mister Miracle AND trainwrecks involving bigger DC names like Bats and Harl, it may as well be a spot on observation, and Strange Adventures will repeat this success. Time will tell. more
By: Tom King, Mitch Gerads
Released: Mar 4, 2020
After winning five Eisner Awards and topping year-end "best of lists," the comic book of 2019 was Mister Miracle. The comic book of 2020 will be Strange Adventures.
The Mister Miracle team of writer Tom King and artist Mitch Gerads are joined by fan-favorite artist Evan "Doc" Shaner to bring you an epic tale in the tradition of Watchmen, The D...